Presently, a railway engineer or operator has the ability to jointly control the train brakes by manipulating an automatic brake handle and to separately control the locomotive brakes by operating an independent brake handle. For example, during an automatic braking operation, the engineer in the lead locomotive appropriately moves the automatic brake handle into a desired position in a brake range so as to cause a reduction in the brake pipe pressure. When the brake pipe pressure is reduced, the brakes on the railway vehicles in the train, as well as the brakes on the locomotive consist, are applied by introducing a predetermined ratio of air pressure to the brake cylinders. When the pressure reaches the requested brake command level, the brake equipment will go into a lap condition to maintain the braking effort constant. Now if a further increase of braking effort on the entire train is desired, the operating engineer again causes a reduction of air pressure in the brake pipe by movement of the automatic brake handle which, in turn, results in an increase of air pressure in the brake cylinders. Now when the brake cylinder pressure corresponds to the requested brake command, the brake equipment will again go into a lap condition to maintain a constant braking effort. Under certain operating conditions, it may be advantageous to independently control the pneumatic pressure in the brake cylinders on the locomotive consist from the pneumatic pressure in the brake cylinders on the trailing railway cars of the train. In such a situation, the brakes on the locomotives may be separately controlled by manipulating the independent brake handle. Thus, the brake pressure in the brake cylinders of the locomotive consist may be independently increased or decreased to selectively control the braking effort. That is, if the engineer requires different braking characteristics on the locomotive, it was possible to bail-off the brakes on the locomotive by depressing the independent brake handle. In the past, if the engineer bails off and reduces the brake cylinder pressure on the locomotive to zero pounds per square inch (0 psi), and then initiates a further reduction of brake pipe pressure, the new level of brake pipe pressure only returns to a value consistent with the most recent brake pipe reduction. Thus, each depression and release of the bail-off handle can eventually result in a zero pressure to exist in the brake cylinders on the locomotive consist of the train. It will be appreciated that such a condition is not only undesirable, but is also unsafe since the locomotive brakes are inoperable.